Tag Archive for: Creative inspiration

Choosing a name for your business and things to watch out for

Choosing a name for your business is an important, fun, and sometimes very difficult task when setting up a business. Iain Cameron Design and Illustration couldn’t be more practical or dull. But my company very nearly had a whole different name, with some other very interesting connotations, that involve sex and animals. I’ll get to that story later…

It is interesting to look at company names, and how they work for a business. Should it be memorable, or descriptive, or visually appealing, or trustworthy? Does it even matter? The word will take on the meaning of the brand. For some people the word ‘virgin’ implies an older man with a beard who wants to go into outer space. For others it implies Richard Branson.

Aka Spiderman

A number of freelance designer/illustrators brand themselves with a different name. They do this to stand out, be memorable, and to grab the URL (web address). Designing around a brand that isn’t actually your name is also a lot easier than designing for yourself. When starting my business I considered this a good direction to follow, but ultimately couldn’t live with the idea that other people would think I was giving myself a nickname.

Business naming cartoon

Look at the little monkey with the letter!

Which brings me to a company with a great name. I love Mailchimp, the email marketing service provider. I love the name. It’s simple, it’s sweet, it’s warm and cuddly like a monkey that delivers emails. Their website is also very well designed which will always give me a warm glow brand wise. I have a poor memory for names, but am very good at remembering important stuff in a round about way. I once said during a meeting in a previous design job, ‘why don’t we use the monkey email company’. They laughed at me, but they knew who I meant…

Mail chimp cartoon

Dog gone it

Before I finally went with my company name being ‘My Name and what I do’. I very nearly gave it another name. I searched for weeks for a company name. I combined colours and animals, various other random words, significant words, references to song titles, bands, lyrics, clever stuff, stupid stuff, surreal stuff, but ultimately nothing I could live with. Or someone got there first, or the URL wasn’t available.

Until I came up with ‘Bad Puppy Design’. With an image etched in my head of a sweet puppy dog with a guilty look on it’s face. And the URL was available!!

Bingo, I’d found it! But just before buying the domain name, I thought I’ll just see what’s on BadPuppy.com, might turn out to be another design company. Well apparently not. It’s one of the world’s largest gay porn websites.

Business name outing

So a lucky escape. Although from what I’m not sure. I’m not homophobic, so it’s the porn bit that is the issue. But somehow ‘gay porn’ made it even funnier. The thing is it may well have generated traffic. On telling another designer this story he replied, with his head slanted to one side, ‘but would that be the sort of traffic you were after?’. Which is a point. But if none of us wanted traffic that at some point was on their way into or out of porn sites, none of us would have any traffic… Although predictive text on Chrome made for interesting reading typing in the address.

As of right now the domain name is still available. You can have my ‘Bad Puppy Design’ company name suggestion for free!

summer-beer-copenhagen

Back to work after a relaxing summer

summer-beer-copenhagen

Back to school work

With August about to turn into September, I find myself happily going up through the gears back into proper work mode. I’ve had a great summer, my first real break in many years. My batteries are recharged, and I’m raring to go from my base in Copenhagen.

One of the best aspects of living in Copenhagen is the work, life balance. The business side of the city clearly winds down a bit during the peak summer months, but then cranks back to life with everyone refreshed, with ideas and eager to explore possibilities.

We are three!

My design business will shortly be three years old. I am very proud of what I’ve achieved, and grateful to all the clients I have been lucky enough to meet and work with. Here’s to the next three years!

So if you want to see some of my work, here is web design.

This is for graphic design, specialising in logo design.

And my other core area Illustration.

Skål, Slangevar, Cheers!

Dores Inn, Loch Ness Scotland

One of my favourite places to visit whenever I am back in Scotland is The Dores Inn restaurant, in the village of Dores on the outskirts of Inverness by Loch Ness. The food is fantastic, and the surrounding scenery is sensational. May be worth booking in advance to avoid disappointment.

If you are looking for a place to stay in Inverness from which to visit, I recommend Bannerman Bed and Breakfast as it is a lovely bed and breakfast in a great location in Inverness – I designed the website, and my sister owns Bannerman B&B!

If you use the code <I know your brother> you may get an extra sausage* for breakfast.

*Other breakfast options are available.

Dores Inn Loch Ness

loch-ness-inverness-scotland

Labradors running into Loch Ness never to be seen again… Nessie likes a labrador. Dark chocolate or white chocolate, she’s not fussed.

Loch Ness Scotland

Told you…

Inverness Loch Ness

dores-inn-loch-ness-scotland

 

copenhagen-back-streets-fe

Beautiful back streets of Copenhagen

Copenhagen has lots of fantastic classic and modern architecture. However the beautiful back streets of Copenhagen have a charm of their own. The combination of mixed architectural styles, tight spaces and different colours and the Scandinavian light makes for a wonderful aesthetic experience, best described as ‘hyggeligt’.

copenhagen back streets

Torvehallerne KBH, Nørreport market

Copenhagen marketTorvehallerne KBH, the Nørreport market, situated a few hundred metres from Nørreport Station in central Copenhagen is a vibrant, modern international market well worth a visit should you be visiting Copenhagen. It’s only a couple of years old, built in two modern halls, and features delis and restaurants with high quality food and drink from around the world.

The coffee is great and there is something to eat for every taste.

market-copenhagenFish market Copenhagen

Logo fail

Very amusing failed logos

 

logo-fail-catholic-priest

A splendid website and a very amusing article on failed logos at www.boredpanda.com/worst-logo-fails-ever/

From Bored Panda ‘This is an actual logo designed in 1973 for the Catholic Church’s Archdiocesan Youth Commission. It even won an award from the Art Directors Club of Los Angeles.’